How EB-5 Funding Helps Real Estate Developers Raise Capital for Projects

Qendrese Sadriu (00:00)
I am, I’m with EB-5 Coast to Coast, right? I’m one of the directors there. ⁓ As an industry, again, what’s next? I think it’s quite a lot of growth. We do have challenges as an industry in terms of legislation, but it’s a tight knit industry that works really hard to ⁓ bring awareness to this program. It’s a program that creates jobs for U.S. citizens.

⁓ So it’s a job creating program that brings in capital to the US that brings in capital to development ⁓ that make these developments make, you know, real economic impacts in different areas, especially rural areas, right? Where it’s needed the most. it is, it’s an industry where you really learn about the technicalities of investing.

Quentin Edmonds (00:47)
Yes.

Qendrese Sadriu (00:58)
development, ⁓ Capital stack, structuring, all of this stuff.

Quentin Edmonds (02:36)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host Q and yes, you got two Q’s today for the price of one Absolutely. You are your screen. It is not playing tricks on you You got two keys for the price of one one looks better than the other y’all let y’all decide which one I’m just We already know which one we already know right? But no, I’m honestly I’m so excited to have my guests on have another fantastic guest

And she’s gonna talk about something, you you may not be too familiar about, you may do, but EB-5. And so ⁓ I’m so interested for her to dive into that to give us more of the understanding of it. I do know, I think she is the first one on my part to talk about this. And so I’m super excited. And listen, this is how she told me to introduce them. So this is how I’m gonna introduce her. I wanna welcome you all, introduce you all to Ms. Q Ms. Q, how you doing today?

Qendrese Sadriu (03:32)
I’m doing great. Thank you. Thank you for that kind introduction, Mr. Q ⁓

Quentin Edmonds (03:34)
Absolutely. Absolutely. so happy.

I love it. I love it. Well, listen, I am so glad you’re here. The type I am, I love to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your major focus these days, what you’re focusing on.

If you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the place that you’re at. We love origin stories. And then tell them what part of the world you’re in, if you don’t mind. People love to know where people are geographically. So what’s your main focus, your origin story, and where you are? Ms. Q, you have the floor.

Qendrese Sadriu (04:56)
Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Quentin. My name is Qendrese but everybody calls me Q for obvious reasons. ⁓ The industry I’m here to talk about today is the EB-5 industry. ⁓ It is a source of funding for real estate projects. know, with the interest rates going high lately, a lot more real estate developers have

approached us and wanting to use this EB-5 funding basically for their project developments. Now, I personally have been in the industry for 12, 13 years now, more than a decade. My background was banking, but this kind of fits into it because you have people investing in the US. ⁓

It sits at the crossroads of immigration, investment and real estate development. And I’ve been around basically in this industry for more than a decade. I took a little break for a while and was chief admin officer for another company. And then I came right back to it. I think I missed it too much. ⁓

Quentin Edmonds (06:13)
Yeah.

Qendrese Sadriu (06:15)
It’s an amazing industry. There are some amazing people in this industry. It’s not too big of an industry, but you know, it’s a growing industry. And I am in New York. I live in New York and this work is pretty much international. So the location doesn’t really matter, you know, like.

We have a running joke. We work on an airplane because you’re always flying somewhere.

Quentin Edmonds (06:44)
Yeah. I love it. Thank you, Ms. Q. Thank you for telling us about what you do, where you are, and kind of the origin story, kind of how you got there. And so I was actively listening as you was talking, writing some things down. And I want to kind of summarize what you said to me because I want to make a statement and I want to ask you a question. All right? And so ⁓ the EB-5 is a source of funding for real estate.

Qendrese Sadriu (07:06)
Of course.

Quentin Edmonds (07:12)
you know, projects. You’ve been in the industry for 12, 13 years, had a background in banking and the EB-5 is somewhere, stands at the intersection of like immigration investing in real estate, right? Took a little break, you know, as a chief admin officer, but then you kind of came back to it. You missed it. He was like, don’t call it a comeback, but I’m back. yeah. So that’s a little summarization of what you’re talking about.

Qendrese Sadriu (07:34)
You know, when you,

when you find your thing, right. And then you start having doubts about it and you’re like, maybe I could do better. And then you go do better and you’re like, no, no, no, I, I, you know, that’s not my thing.

Quentin Edmonds (07:37)
Absolutely.

So

you literally set me up for my statement and my question. All right. So Ms. Q, I often say on this podcast, destiny has no wasted moments. Right. As we go through life.

We find out why and we found out why because of the journey, right? Like we look back and we realized some things wasn’t a perfect fit, but I found out what my passion is. I found out what my why is. So it’s like destiny is building moments and we’re borrowing from each moment. So I would love, Q, I would love to know what has destiny, what has the journey, what have the moments taught you about yourself? What has this journey taught you about you? Has it taught you discipline, resilience, innovation? Like what has it taught you about yourself?

Qendrese Sadriu (08:13)
Absolutely.

Well, I don’t tend to be as philosophical as that. I tend to be a more practical person. ⁓ I’ve learned a lot in this industry. And to be honest with you, I owe most of it to my previous boss, my mentor, who kind of took me under his wing and just taught me everything. ⁓ And this wasn’t just everything about this industry, but just business in general.

Quentin Edmonds (08:31)
Okay. Okay.

Qendrese Sadriu (09:30)
And, you know, I’ve learned a lot. Certain things that you think in the background as you’re entering an industry or as you’re entering business, like how does this happen? How is this scaled up? How is this, you know? And then you go in there and learn the intricacies, the details, the small things that you have to do consistently all the time to really be.

you know, or understand or grow as a person and as a business, right? So I think I’ve learned discipline. I’ve always been disciplined as an individual, ⁓ discipline is what I think ⁓ has brought me this far. ⁓ yeah, that’s what I would say in terms of that.

Quentin Edmonds (10:22)
Absolutely. I appreciate your reflective answer. And I like asking that question because I don’t care what business you’re in. If you are a business owner conducting business, there’s a journey to it all. And there’s different things that you pick up skillset strategies. then sometimes I just want to people give them the opportunity to slow down and of reflect, ⁓ man, how did I get into this position? What are some of the things that led me to kind of where I am now? And sometimes that can cause people

that may be stuck in the journey to kind of reorient and get gained perspective. Like, okay, I know why I’m here. I know my why, I know my passion. And sometimes that gets people unstuck. gets them re-motivated, recalculated. And so I really appreciate you being reflective with your answer and that question. What’s next for you with EB-5? Like, what are you guys looking to, what’s the new goal? What are you looking to solve at scale next?

Qendrese Sadriu (11:13)
I am, I’m with EB-5 Coast to Coast, right? I’m one of the directors there. ⁓ As an industry, again, what’s next? I think it’s quite a lot of growth. We do have challenges as an industry in terms of legislation, but it’s a tight knit industry that works really hard to ⁓ bring awareness to this program. It’s a program that creates jobs for U.S. citizens.

⁓ So it’s a job creating program that brings in capital to the US that brings in capital to development ⁓ that make these developments make, you know, real economic impacts in different areas, especially rural areas, right? Where it’s needed the most. it is, it’s an industry where you really learn about the technicalities of investing.

Quentin Edmonds (12:01)
Yes.

Qendrese Sadriu (12:11)
development, ⁓ Capital stack, structuring, all of this stuff.

However, it’s also an industry that does a lot of good for the US, right? For us, for the citizens of the United States. So ⁓ I think we’re getting a lot more support as we go through our challenges, ⁓ But bring an awareness.

is mainly, you know, the more people that know about it, the more people that use it, the more people that go out there with it, the bigger and stronger it becomes.

Quentin Edmonds (12:46)
I it. I mean, I’m so glad you started to frame that within the lens that you did, because next question I’m about to ask you, I literally was looking at it due to framework as you talked. And so one of the things that you wrote down that I started circling was immigration. I started circling investors. I started circling economics. And then I landed on what you just said, one of the last things you said was people.

And so like all of those things that I said, they translate into helping people, right? So I would love to hear from you when you hear this word, what comes to mind, when you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind to you, Ms. Q?

Qendrese Sadriu (13:24)
Honesty, you know, everyone I’ve dealt with ⁓ Be it investors or otherwise I’ve been I’ve always been very straightforward and honest about you know, how things are Honesty builds relationships, you know, I’m not a person that would go for a quick sale, you know ⁓ I’m someone that likes to build a relationship likes to understand the situation the other

a person is in and really just be helpful, right? I want to be helpful to people. So that’s what builds relationships. It’s not rocket science, honestly. It’s just being honest and having a genuine care for the people you deal with.

Quentin Edmonds (14:14)
love that genuine care. I quite often say on this podcast, I quote a proverb. It says, when you refresh others, you in return will be refreshed. And so when you genuinely care about people and you refresh them, help them, help them get stable stability, it comes back and you start getting stabilization in different parts of your life, just all based on you taking the time out to help someone else. And so I love that philosophy. I love that thought. ⁓ Listen, Ms. Q, is there…

Any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about, is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like, did you come in maybe with something on your mind that you feel like, I’ll be with shit? No. If you did, I want to create space for you to land that message.

Qendrese Sadriu (15:40)
Well, I think inspiration wise, ⁓ you know, keep doing what you’re doing. The little things compound in the long term, right? ⁓ Consistency is key to everything. You keep consistent in, you your journey or your industry or your business and things come around. ⁓ The stars align at some point.

But, you know, the message basically that I wanted to kind of put out there being in this podcast, ⁓ just wanted to bring more awareness to the EB-5 industry ⁓ in your real estate community that is there, it exists. It’s something that has been used successfully for many, many years.

And, you know, we’re here to help with that.

Quentin Edmonds (16:36)
Absolutely. love it. Yeah. One of my mentors says, ⁓ consistency beats intensity any day. so consistency is key. ⁓ a lot of people, they love the poster behind me, but I want them to understand when I, what, what, what I glean when it talks about make your own luck. You know, my working definition of luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Right? So we talk about putting in the work. We’re talking about being intentional, being prepared that way when an opportunity comes.

we can hop on the opportunity. And so I love how you talked about, know, philosophical versus simplistic, you know, just some practical things. And I just, I love you for being practical, consistency, hard work, and really being there for others. so I am Ms. I appreciate you coming on today. really do. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,

Qendrese Sadriu (17:23)
Bye.

Well, you we, you can get in touch with us through our website, eb5coasttocoast.com ⁓ And then we can put our, my contact information, the email address basically there, just get in touch through our website. We have an amazing team that can help in this area. And that’s basically how you, should get in touch with us.

Quentin Edmonds (17:54)
Absolutely. Well, Ms. Q, I want to say to you three things sincerely. First, thank you for your time. You you could have been doing anything with your time. think time is our most precious commodity. And so it’s not lost on me. Yes, we’re shooting a podcast, but still you gave us the gift of your time. So thank you for that. Secondly, thank you for your messaging. Thank you for your story. believe messages and stories, they have a way of hitting people right in the heart or in the soul and planting seeds.

And those seeds can literally be life changing. It can be literally course correcting. So I thank you for your message in a day talking about EB-5 because literally you may plant the seeds in somebody that’s going to help them along the way. So thank you. Yep. And lastly, thank you for the way you think. Thank you for your perspective and your mindset and bringing that perspective to this platform. I greatly, greatly appreciate you today.

Qendrese Sadriu (18:35)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Thank you, Quentin.

Quentin Edmonds (18:45)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Ms. Q, y’all know the keys. Come on, y’all know the keys. Not gonna let you down. So you heard Ms. Q, her information is in the show notes. Get in contact with her, get connected, learn more about the EB-5. But definitely also make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Ms. Q. So thank you again, ma’am and everyone else. Have a fantastic day.